2. Creating Infographics

What is an Infographic?

Infograpics have become so popular these days and as a result more and more high quality infographic design kits are made available to help designers. Infographics can be used very effectively to present complex data in a nice visual and powerful way. It is done using hand-picked design elements that relate to the data they represent e.g. demographic data can be effectively illustrated using small carefully colored human icons as overlay on a simplified map. Online marketers love infographics for their ability to go viral on social networks and often they are offered as easy to embed code making it fast and simple for e.g. bloggers to share them in posts… very useful value oriented way to build links and online presence.
Infographics designs are also used commercially in information products. Gartner Groups Hype Cycleis a well known example of an infographic (at least in the enterprise IT space) that deliver high value data in a delicious and branded way. The huge availability of amazing infographics makes it critical to stand out and have a unique and clever design. This is not easy at all but trust me … some cool infographic design elements can be real life savers! They can be used as inspiration for how to model certain type of data and of course to save tons of valuable time required for drawing up the detailed vector graphics from scratch. Elements from different infographic design kits may be used together and add up to an awesome unique design. Here in this article I will start out with some tips on designing infographics that matters and I will present some really useful resources to help you create your own stunning infograpics and on time.
Tips and Tricks for designing great Infographics

Before you start looking at the infographic design elements below there are a few handy tips you should review:

• Data is key: make sure the topic is interesting and that you have a good and reliable set of data
• Make it trustworthy: add references to you data sources
• Do some good story-telling: Think of the infographic as a story where you build up awareness and facts using the data.
• Make it matter: Draw conclusions that can be supported by the data set. Have a easy to follow red line that eventually lead to reasonable conclusions
• Choose a design style that match the topic. E.g. if the infographic is about popularity of classical music (just kidding) then don’t use high tech super modern and cool design elements.. consider a more old fashion style.
• Decide on a color scheme that you use throughout the entire infographic design
• Keep it simple: find ways to illustrate complex and detailed data sets in a simple and visual way. Use relevant icons to give the data some life.
• Use well know and easy to understand diagrams, tables, charts, time-lines, annotated maps
• Use color and size on related/similar objects to make different values visually differ
• Test it: Let other people review it before you publish… you may see the light only because you worked with the data for hours…
• Be inspired: look at as many good infographics before you start designing yourself

Examples of good Infographics: http://pinterest.com/search/?q=infographics
http://www.edudemic.com/make-infographic-infographic/

Infographic Assignment:

For this assignment, you will create an Infographic that explains the principles of design. You will use the templates at Picktochart to help you. Begin by creating a Picktochart account. When you create your new account, please use your rvschools email as a username and your school password. Watch these videos to get started: Tutorial Videos for Picktochart

8 Types of Infographics


Your infographic must include the following:

• Title
• Definition of principles of design
• A simple definition of each principle:
  • balance, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity, contrast
• two visual examples of each principle
  1. one found example from the internet
  2. either your own photograph or digital drawing
• Hyperlinks to at least three online resources that you believe would help your audience understand the principles of design
• a list of resources (bibliography)
• demonstration of good design principles in the layout of your work (ie: Have you used unity? What is the emphasis? What type of balance have you used? etc.)

You will share this infographic, by first downloading your file, followed by uploading the file to your google drive and then sharing with me.